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As he reaches the age of 50, gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, pictured left in 1992, shows no sign of slowing up.
He's celebrating his 50th birthday this Friday (25th January) with the launch of
his Human Rights Fund. The event will be attended by many of Peter’s friends and supporters, including celebrities, opinion formers, politicians, businesspeople and the media, writes Mike Gray. | 
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| After 30 years of fighting for homosexual rights here in Britain,
he now wants to take on much bigger targets. His high-profile campaign to arrest
President Mugabe for breaking international law banning the use of torture, has for the first time seen
Peter getting support from a surprisingly wide cross-section of the UK media including
the Daily Mail. Tatchell's one-man crusade against the Zimbabwean President has already resulted in supposedly liberal Australia banning Peter from entering his homeland to visit his dying stepfather and attend the family funeral. "It is monstrous that President Mugabe – a leader accused of gross human rights abuses – is being allowed into Australia to attend the Commonwealth summit, while someone like myself - a human rights defender – is being denied the right to return to the country of my birth to visit my family" he said. Peter admits that the launch of the fund signals a change of emphasis. "I've fought to secure the recognition that gay rights are human rights,"says Tatchell. "Having helped win that argument and put queer issues in the mainstream, I am now committed to promoting homosexual human rights as part of a broader humanitarian initiative, integrating lesbian and gay human rights within a universal human rights agenda." Happy Birthday Peter.
You can find more about the Tatchell Human Rights Fund on its websitePeter is also the subject of an OutGuys profile here |
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